The wonderful world of Al Magnus

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Before us is a fairy tale, reality or someone's fantasy? No, it's just French photographer Alastair Magnaldo inviting everyone to visit his fabulous country. Only with him can people fly to the stars, sit on fluffy clouds or climb a rainbow.

When you admire these wonderful pictures, you believe that you too will definitely touch the warm and soft sun with your hand, catch the cloud in the lasso.

On its official website, Alastair talks about how he first became acquainted with photography. “I was ten years old when I discovered the world of photography. I was amazed at the depth of color and the very play of light and shadow that these black and white images give us. I took my first steps along this long and winding path with a Voigtländer camera and a handheld exposure meter. Since then, photography for me is something joyful, airy, filled with light, and this is what I try to show in all my works."

But after several unsuccessful attempts at the very beginning of the thorny path of the artist, Alastair thought that the art of photography was not for him and plunged headlong into the world of science. He is now a qualified physicist and chemist and even holds an advanced degree. It was only after several years that Alastair Magnaldo realized that his fantasies and dreams could not be revealed within the framework of ordinary photographs.

In 2000, he bought a negative scanner with a printer. It was then that Alastair realized that using high-quality tools, he could bring to life all the most unexpected and ideas. Now no framework can contain his raging fantasy. And then she began experimenting with photography and its computer processing. This is how his own style developed, where the world of fantasy dominates reality. Al is very careful about his work: he always uses ink that is resistant to water and light, and stores the files themselves on several hard drives in different places.

He comes up with his pictures-photographs for months, more often for years, and sometimes for an hour, it all depends on inspiration. For example, Alastair nurtured the idea of his famous painting "The Setting of the Moon" for two years, because in a real masterpiece the main thing is not only the image, but also the elucidation and background. The technical part itself takes about 7 hours: 30 minutes for scanning, 6 hours for computer processing and about an hour for printing.

Alastair dedicated all his pictures-photographs to his wife and three adorable kids. By the way, in many photographs we can see them.

Almost all of his works are signed by the creative pseudonym Al Magnus. Photographer Alastair Magnaldo works and lives with his family between Provence and Cévennes.